TIVO ALERT -- Treasury Secretary Geithner steps up his public push for financial reg. reform, talking today to Rachel Maddow and Peter Barnes on Fox Business. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano sits down with Andrea Mitchell at 1 p.m. ET on MSNBC and with Bill O’Reilly to discuss progress on international aviation security.

ENDGAME -- Speaker Pelosi, at a blogger roundtable yesterday: “This is the most important initiative most of us in Congress – Congressman Dingell, who was here for Medicare, notwithstanding – will ever do in our legislative lifetimes.”

TOP TALKER – C-SPAN release: “Today, C-SPAN officially launches the C-SPAN Video Library, a free, searchable online collection of every C-SPAN program aired since 1987. … Over 160,000 hours of searchable and watchable digital C-SPAN video … All C-SPAN videos dating back to 1987, and certain older videos from C-SPAN’s earliest years … The C-SPAN Video Library’s Congressional Chronicle feature is an index to the C-SPAN video recordings of the House and Senate floor proceedings - organized by speaker - with full-text and full-video search and an extensive Congressional database going back to 1993.”www.c-spanvideo.org

BREAKING – Elite donors gripe about DNC -- POLITICO’s Jeanne Cummings: “‘The donors rose up, and that was another reason [social secretary] Desiree [Rogers] got pushed out,” said a source close to the White House. … According to an analysis by POLITICO, only 15 — or just 10 percent — of the 150 biggest fundraisers for the Obama campaign gave the maximum $30,400 to the DNC last year. ‘I have not had that much contact with the DNC in the last six to 12 months since the election. It’s very strange,’ said Alan Patricof, a New York investor and longtime Democratic donor. To be sure, the DNC’s fundraising is humming along at a record pace, bringing in about $30 million more than it did in 2005, the last midterm election season, and giving the committee a small (less than $1 million) but rare cash advantage over the Republican National Committee. … DNC spokesman Hari Sevugan acknowledged that the committee may not be keeping pace with President George W. Bush’s RNC, but it is doing very well, he said, compared with RNC Chairman Michael Steele’s operation. … In addition, Sevugan noted that the committee is keeping pace even as it complies with Obama’s ban on contributions from lobbyists and political action committees — challenges the Republicans don’t face.”

Good Tuesday morning from Maine, where the splake are biting and the lakes are frozen over. But a moderate week means this may be the last weekend for ice fishing. The freeze-thaw is so hard on back roads that local governments have banned big trucks, putting you in a pickle if you need cement.

WEST WING MUST-READ – “L.A. Times lead story 24% in state lack health insurance: The jump in 2009 stems largely from the loss of job-sponsored coverage, a UCLA study finds,” by Duke Helfand: “Nearly 1 in 4 Californians under age 65 had no health insurance last year, according to a new report, as soaring unemployment propelled vast numbers of once-covered workers into the ranks of the uninsured. The state's uninsured population jumped to 8.2 million in 2009, up from 6.4 million in 2007, marking the highest number over the last decade, investigators from UCLA's Center for Health Policy Research said. People who were uninsured for part or all of 2009 accounted for 24.3% of California's population under age 65 -- a dramatic increase from 2007 driven largely by Californians who lost employer-sponsored health insurance, particularly over the last year. Among those over age 18, nearly 1 in 3 had no insurance for all or part of 2009, the UCLA researchers found. The ranks of uninsured children also grew.”

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--WashPost A1, “Pelosi may try to pass health bill without vote,” by Lori Montgomery and Paul Kane: “After laying the groundwork for a decisive vote this week on the Senate's health-care bill, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi suggested Monday that she might attempt to pass the measure without having members vote on it. Instead, Pelosi (D-Calif.) would rely on a procedural sleight of hand: The House would vote on a more popular package of fixes to the Senate bill; under the House rule for that vote, passage would signify that lawmakers ‘deem’ the health-care bill to be passed. The tactic -- known as a ‘self-executing rule’ or a ‘deem and pass’ -- has been commonly used, although never to pass legislation as momentous as the $875 billion health-care bill. … ‘It's more insider and process-oriented than most people want to know,’ the speaker said ... ‘But I like it … because people don't have to vote on the Senate bill.’ Republicans quickly condemned the strategy … as an effort to avoid responsibility for passing the legislation, and some suggested that Pelosi's plan would be unconstitutional.”

--Ezra Klein: “It's a circuitous strategy born of necessity. Pelosi doesn't have votes for the Senate bill without the reconciliation package. But the Senate parliamentarian said that the Senate bill must be signed into law before the reconciliation package can be signed into law. That removed Pelosi's favored option of passing the reconciliation fixes before passing the Senate bill. So now the House will vote on reconciliation explicitly and the Senate bill implicitly, which is politically easier, even though the effect is not any different than if Congress were to pass the Senate bill first and pass the reconciliation fixes after. This is all about plausible deniability for House members who don't want to vote for the Senate bill, although I doubt many voters will find the denials plausible.”

--NRCC tweaks Dems with “A CAUCUS IN CHAOS” e-mail to editorial boards across the country.

--POLITICO’s David Rogers: “[I]magine an unhappy young couple trying to cut corners, all the while chaperoned by well-meaning, buttinsky aunts who keep bumping into one another. House and Senate Democrats are the distrustful couple; the Congressional Budget Office and Senate parliamentarian the two strait-laced aunts with conflicting advice on the do’s and don’ts that lie ahead. And as the House Budget Committee kicked off the process Monday afternoon, the rampant confusion is a lesson in the fact that cutting corners is never a good start in Congress. The time-honored legislative process would have been for the House and Senate to conference on their respective health bills, reach agreement, vote and then send the package on to President Barack Obama. … To cross the finish line, the House is taking a two-pronged approach that means sending the Senate’s unvarnished version of reform to Obama and then immediately initiating changes in a second sidecar bill that invokes budget “reconciliation” privileges to circumvent the threat of a Senate filibuster. It will be a huge lift, but Senate Democratic leaders are sworn to come up with the 51 votes needed; if so, the final result will be as close to a compromise as the two sides can hope for at this stage.”

--HuffPost’s Sam Stein: “Donna Brazile, who is the Vice Chair of Voter Registration and Participation at the DNC and a top-ranking strategist within the party, said on Monday that Democrats who "decide to defeat" the health care bill "deserve to get a primary challenge" in future elections.”

--AIR COVER -- Chris Frates reports atop POLITICO Pulse: “The drug industry, which has held off running ads until officials sign off on the final reconciliation bill, is growing more comfortable with the emerging legislation and is preparing a substantial pro-reform ad buy in 43 Democratic districts, according to a senior industry source. The amount and timing of the buy have not yet been set and hinge largely on action in the House.”

--PRESSURE TACTICS: “THE PRICE OF BETRAYAL” - -“Left warns Dems on health care vote,” by POLITICO’s Ben Smith and Gabriel Beltrone: “Labor and progressive leaders are threatening House Democrats who oppose health care legislation with potentially destructive third party challenges in November. … New York and a handful of other states have ‘fusion’ rules that allow candidates to run on multiple ballot lines, giving minor parties like the Working Families a great deal of political leverage. For wavering Upstate New York moderates like Reps. Michael Arcuri, Scott Murphy, and Bill Owens, the line could mean the margin between victory and defeat. The first target, however, seems to be Rep. Michael McMahon, a New York City Democrat who has indicated he opposes the bill. ‘There’s a lot of voters in Staten Island and Brooklyn who [will] realize that [McMahon] just chose to be on the side of the insurance companies and start seeing their wages go to pay for their health care,’ said Service Employees International Union President Andrew Stern, a close ally of President Barack Obama and a prime mover in the attempt to ensure the votes of moderate and conservative Democrats. ‘It’s a very volatile time, and no one should believe that third party candidates don’t have a chance. … There is, for the first time in American history, a real chance for a third party,’ said Stern, who argued that the same discontent that has inflamed a new conservative grassroots could drive a liberal outside challenge.” http://bit.ly/aqKDUX
--HuffPost banner yesterday, on POTUS’ Ohio day trip: “THE FINAL HEALTH CARE RALLY -- Obama: Woman Whose Letter I Read To Insurance Execs Now Fighting For Her Life.”

--VIDEO -- --Bart Stupak tells Greta Van Susteren that Rep. Jim Clyburn’s assertion that “Congressman Stupak will end up voting for this bill” is “wishful thinking.”

2010 – TEAM OBAMA’S THEORY OF THE CASE – “Obama pollster: Revise process, not goals,” by the aforementioned Ben Smith: “DNC pollster Joel Benenson, in a new poll and memo prepared for the Service Employees International Union and provided to POLITICO, is arguing that Democrats' political woes stem not from the scale of their agenda, but from the perception that they've turned into deal-making insiders on their path to achieving it. The memo argues that Democrats can repair their standing and recapture the mantle of ‘change’ by passing health care legislation, by putting a new focus on a transparent, fair process, and by forcing Republicans to defend Wall Street and “[b]ringing change to the way Congress does business by cracking down on the influence of special interests.’ ‘Among both [Democrats and Independents], dissatisfaction is not focused on the broad outlines and goals of the Democratic agenda,’ write Benenson and his associate Danny Franklin. ‘Instead, it centers squarely on perceptions of a breakdown in the legislative process, exemplified by deal-cutting and special deals for the constituents of key swing Senators. …

“Independents’ concerns about health care reform are not about specific provisions in the bills passed by the Senate or House, but instead reflect concerns about reforms’ stagnation and the backroom deal-cutting, particularly those that benefit the constituents of key swing senators or special interests, such as the pharmaceutical industry. What’s critical is that Democrats do not mistake Independents’ dissatisfaction with the way Democrats are running Congress with a rightward ideological shift. … Democrats have lost a significant degree of the equity they carried as the party of change in 2008, putting election prospects at considerable risk for the coming midterms. … There is no question that Democrats will face a difficult environment in 2010, however the fact that Independents in these states have not turned against Democrats ideologically and place equal blame on Republicans for Washington’s shortcomings suggests that the outlook for 2010 is still fluid and could turn if voters begin to see a change in the way Congress is run that leads to real results.”9-page PDF

FINANCIAL RE-REG.:

--FT splash, “Dodd bill on reform gains fresh impetus,” by Tom Braithwaite: “Chris Dodd, Democratic chairman of the Senate banking committee, yesterday proposed a tougher-than-expected curb on proprietary trading in a financial regulation bill that injected new momentum into reform efforts. Key Republicans warmed to the bill, saying it was close to a product they could support, but much of the financial industry and some consumer advocates continue to oppose it. The bill instructs regulators to study and then enforce the ‘Volcker rule’ in spite of Mr Dodd’s earlier frustration at the White House for pushing a ban on deposit-taking banks from trading for their own account … However, the financial industry is still betting that the rule will be softened amid skepticism from Republicans and Democrats. Mark Warner, a Democratic senator from Virginia, yesterday told the Financial Times: ‘I don’t necessarily think it needs to be a mandate.’”

--POLITICO’s Victoria McGrane: “On the hot-button debate over the scope and power of a new consumer protection watchdog, Dodd’s draft would house the new entity in the Federal Reserve as he’d agreed to do in discussions with Corker and Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.). But the new agency isn’t as weak as many on the left feared. The entity would have ‘autonomous’ power to write rules for all financial companies that deal with consumers – from small payday lenders to the biggest commercial banks, according to a summary of the bill. It would also have some examination and enforcement power – a huge win for consumer advocates. … Under what’s being called the ‘Hotel California’ provision, financial firms that opt to put themselves under Fed supervision as bank holding companies – a move made by several major investment banks during the financial crisis, including Goldman Sachs, to gain access to Fed lending – would not be able to leave the Fed’s jurisdiction.”

--WSJ A6, “Wall Street Loses as Small Banks Win,” by Damian Paletta and Randall Smith: “A proposal advanced by Senate Democrats on Monday to overhaul financial markets would take sharp aim at big Wall Street banks, with provisions that would rein in profits, require more capital and tamp down executive compensation, likely exacerbating a political brawl between bankers and the White House. … Among the winners, community banks and small credit unions would be financially able to compete, for perhaps the first time, against large competitors reined in by new restrictions on capital, complexity and size. The [Fed] and the [FDIC] would see their powers redefined, and in many ways expanded. On the other side of the ledger, large financial companies overseen by the Fed would have to pay into a $50 billion fund to pay for the collapse of failed financial firms. … Goldman would also be hit particularly hard by a provision, dubbed the Volcker Rule, in which regulators could force banks to get rid of divisions that make risky bets with their own capital. … Other large financial divisions like General Electric Co.'s GE Capital could be forced to comply with Fed supervision for the first time, although they likely wouldn't be forced to split off from their parent company.”

--“The U.S. Chamber of Commerce … expressed disappointment with the latest financial regulatory reform draft by Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-CT) and said that effective reform of U.S. financial markets must be bipartisan. ‘This bill takes three steps backwards with the hope of making future progress,’ said David Hirschmann, president and CEO of the U.S. Chamber’s Center for Capital Markets Competitiveness ... Among the major concerns, the Chamber will continue to oppose a new independent consumer financial regulator that will reduce access to credit for businesses and consumers, the federalization of corporate governance, and a permanent bailout fund.”

POPPING ONLINE:

--Drudge banner, with a shot a tight-lipped Obama, “THE WEEK, THE DRAMA” – links to “Dems start countdown toward health care vote,” by AP’s David Espo: “Democratic congressional leaders showed signs of progress Monday in winning anti-abortion Democrats whose votes are pivotal to President Barack Obama's fiercely contested remake of the health care system. Obama expressed optimism Congress would approve his call for affordable and nearly universal coverage as he pitched his plan on a trip to Ohio, while Republican Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina, among the bill's sharpest opponents, said he was ‘less confident’ than before that it could be stopped. ‘They'd have to be remarkable people not to fall under the kind of pressure they'll be under,’ DeMint said of rank-and-file Democrats.”

--POLITICO lead, with shot of Pelosi wagging a finger, “Dems: Store closed for reform deals” – links to story by Patrick O’Connor and Jonathan Allen: “House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is playing hardball with her rank and file in the run-up to an historic health care vote. Instead of the typical wheeling and dealing to pick up much-needed support, Pelosi and her leadership team are warning members that the bill is final, and its language is set, so don’t come seeking major changes or handouts for your district. Asked if she was willing to change the final legislation at the request of Democratic holdouts, the speaker said, ‘No.’ That message may sound good to voters angered by the ‘Cornhusker Kickback’ or any other last-minute deals — but it’s sure to make life difficult for Pelosi as she struggles to find the 216 votes she needs to pass the final package.”

--Huff Post banner, with split-shot of Ted Kaufman and Chris Dodd, “SEN. KAUFMAN: GOLDMAN MAY HAVE COMMITTED SECURITIES FRAUD” – links to story by Simon Johnson: “Last week, Senator Ted Kaufman (D., DE) gave a devastating speech in the Senate on ‘too big to fail’ and all it entails. A long public silence from our political class was broken -- and to great effect. Today's Dodd reform proposals stand in pale comparison to the principles outlined by Senator Kaufman. … Now, the Senator has gone one better, putting many private criticisms of the financial sector -- the kind you hear whispered with conviction on the Upper East Side and in Midtown -- firmly and articulately on the public record in a Senate floor speech to be delivered tomorrow. He pulls no punches: ‘fraud and potential criminal conduct were at the heart of the financial crisis.’”

--Daily Caller banner, with shot of Tea Partiers protesting, “The Last Hurrah – Tea Partiers to storm Capitol Hill in last-minute protest of health-care bill” – links to story by Alex Pappas: “Tea Party activists will storm Capitol Hill this morning, spending the day rallying and protesting against President Obama’s health-care bill and demanding meetings with targeted members. Former Republican leader Dick Armey, whose FreedomWorks is an organizer of the day’s events, said the Tea Partiers will be a reminder to members that a vote for health care could doom them in the polls in November.” STORY

“ONE OF THE MOST SERIOUS CONFLICTS [WITH] ISRAEL IN TWO DECADES”:

-- The (British) Independent, front page, “Obama runs out of patience with Israel”: “The Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday strongly defended Jewish settlement construction in East Jerusalem in the face of US pressure and what one of his own top diplomats described as the worst crisis in relations with Washington for more than three decades. … The row has appeared finally to bring to a head the year-long tensions between the two governments since Barack Obama tried in vain to persuade the Israeli Prime Minister to agree to a total settlement freeze. … The Israeli newspaper Haaretz and Israeli Army Radio reported … that in a conference call with Israeli consuls across the US on Saturday night, Michael Oren, Israel's Ambassador to Washington, said that the crisis was one of ‘historic proportions’. Summoned to the State Department on Friday, he reportedly urged the consuls, on instructions ‘from the highest level’, to lobby Congress, Jewish community groups and the media to make Israel's case. Mr Oren, a historian, apparently recalled a previous stand-off in 1975 between Henry Kissinger and the then Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin over US demands in the aftermath of the Yom Kippur war for a partial withdrawal from the Sinai. One explanation canvassed in Israel for Washington's tough stance is that pressure is being exerted by the US military for early progress in solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as means of reducing Muslim hostility to the US. … Mr Netanyahu can at least expect a warm reception in Washington when next week he addresses the annual conference of AIPAC, the staunchly right-of-centre pro-Israel lobby group which is trying to mobilise opposition to the stance taken by Mrs Clinton and Mr Obama.”

--NYT A1, “Israel Feeling Rising Anger From the U.S.,” by Mark Landler and Ethan Bronner: “An ill-timed municipal housing announcement in Jerusalem has mutated into one of the most serious conflicts between the United States and Israel in two decades … With the administration’s special envoy, George J. Mitchell, suddenly delaying his planned trip to Israel, the administration was expecting a call from Mr. Netanyahu, after a tense exchange last week with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. On Monday, however, Mr. Netanyahu sounded a defiant note, telling the Israeli Parliament that construction of Jewish housing in Jerusalem was not a matter for negotiation. He is struggling to balance an increasingly unhappy ally in Washington with the restive right wing of his coalition government.”

--WSJ A1, “Israel Rift Threatens U.S. Plans In Mideast,” by Jay Solomon and Joshua Mitnick: “Officials on both sides fear relations between the two allies are at their worst point in decades, after Israel scuttled hope for a new round of peace talks by announcing new settlement plans last week during a visit by Vice President Joseph Biden.”

--NYT lead story, “U.S. Is Reining In Special Forces In Afghanistan,” by Richard A. Oppel Jr. and Rod Nordland in Kabul: “Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the top American commander in Afghanistan, has brought most American Special Operations forces under his direct control for the first time, out of concern over continued civilian casualties and disorganization among units in the field. ‘What happens is, sometimes at cross-purposes, you got one hand doing one thing and one hand doing the other, both trying to do the right thing but working without a good outcome,’ General McChrystal said in an interview. Critics … say that Special Operations forces have been responsible for a large number of the civilian casualties in Afghanistan and operate by their own rules.”

--WaPo A1, “Afghan women fear loss of hard-won progress,” by Karin Brulliard in Laghman, Afghanistan: “The head-to-toe burqas that made women a faceless symbol of the Taliban's violently repressive rule are no longer required here. But many Afghan women say they still feel voiceless eight years into a war-torn democracy, and they point to government plans to forge peace with the Taliban as a prime example.”

--“FBI to investigate Mexico deaths” -- BBC: “American FBI agents have been sent to the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez to investigate the deaths of three US citizens. Three people connected to the consulate were killed in drive-by shootings on Saturday in two separate incidents. The US state department said the killings underscored the ‘severe and significant danger’ Mexico represents to the United States. Mexico has blamed the killings on a gang linked to a drugs cartel. But investigators have said it is too early to tell if those killed were deliberately targeted. … Some eight FBI agents will be working alongside Mexican authorities in the investigation.”

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